Human material existence is limited by ideas, not stuff, people don't need copper wires they need ways to communicate, oil was a… — Paul Romer Copy Share Image
When somebody discovers something like the quadratic formula or the Pythagorean theorem, the convention in science is that he can't control that… — Paul Romer Copy Share Image
So human capital makes ideas, and ideas help make human capital. But still, they're conceptually distinct. — Paul Romer Copy Share Image
Charter Cities has been approached in many different ways, by many people acting as individuals or as representatives of organizations. — Paul Romer Copy Share Image
For a nation, the choices that determine whether income doubles in one generation or two dwarf all other economic policy concerns. — Paul Romer Copy Share Image
Unfortunately, we don't have a bankruptcy process. Suppose the state actually just gets to the point where it cannot meet all of its promises… — Paul Romer Copy Share Image
I'd rather live in a world where firms don't have these enormous incentives to spy on individuals. — Paul Romer Copy Share Image
When we speak of institutions, economists mean more than just organizations. We mean conventions, even rules, about how things are done. — Paul Romer Copy Share Image
Good law includes a commitment to transparency and an insistence that no person or entity with a conflict of interest should have influence on… — Paul Romer Copy Share Image
No one from Charter Cities, can have any financial interest in any project in Honduras; no one can accept consulting fees from the Honduran… — Paul Romer Copy Share Image
In the 1950s, Hong Kong was a place where millions of people could go, from the mainland, to start in jobs like sewing shirts,… — Paul Romer Copy Share Image
In the developing world, most people don't yet live in big well-run cities. Given the chance to move to one, hundreds of millions of… — Paul Romer Copy Share Image
Fracking is an amazing instance of discovery of many things that come together to make it much cheaper to extract oil and gas. In… — Paul Romer Copy Share Image
My number-one recommendation is to invest in people. Humans that are well trained are the inputs into this discovery process. And there's big opportunities… — Paul Romer Copy Share Image
After 1960, anyone who wanted to discuss almost any aspect of U.S. public policy - from how to make cars safer to whether to… — Paul Romer Copy Share Image
